Skepticism
by percychased
Summary: In which she's skeptical of him and he's spending every moment proving her wrong.


**Word Count: 989 (excluding A/N)**

**Written for the Wand Wood Competition, category Maple, and the Diagon Alley Challenge, category Madame Pimpernelle's Beautifying Potions.**

**I quite like this one, actually. There's minimal fics about Penelope/Percy and they're hardly ever explored in the books, so I thought I'd give it a go. I actually wrote this all in one sitting, which is a rarity for me because I'm extremely impatient.**

**Anyways, I'd love you're input on this, because this is my first Percy/Penelope.**

* * *

She wanted nothing to do with him, pompous Prefect prat Percy. He was stuck-up and arrogant, and that was all. Yes, she was a Ravenclaw, but that didn't mean she was constricted to study every hour of the day, like him.

And the stupid git should be grateful. He's a pure blood, therefore he didn't have to be worried about this _chamber of secrets _or the petrified students.

She, Penelope Clearwater, was a Muggleborn, or how Blaise Zabini but it the other day, _a filthy Mudblood._ She knew it was mostly Slytherins who held this prejudice, but she was still shaken up, a little unnerved by the whole idea.

* * *

"Hello, am I interrupting anything?" she had looked up from where she was sitting in the empty Arithmancy classroom, pouring over a textbook and in desperate need of some peace and quiet, to see a surprised Percy Weasley peering into the classroom.. Penelope loved her friends, honestly, but lately _they wouldn't shut up,_ so she went to find some alone was mildly surprised, and not as annoyed as usual, when she found Percy Weasley in the doorway of the classroom. When did he get that nice-looking?

Penelope cursed herself mentally - there was _no _bloody way she thought of him like that, none at all. She bit her lip down from actually asking him, and replied quietly. "Oh, hello, Percy. No, you aren't."

She would have normally expected him to pivot out of the room and frog-march out once he realized it was occupied, but much to her surprise, he strided over to her. "Sorry for intruding. I was merely wondering if Professor Vector was here. What are you reading?" he asked quietly, taking a seat next to her. Penelope hadn't realized how much nicer his voice sounded when he wasn't scolding his brothers or answering a question in class.

"Oh," she gulped, wondering why she was timid all of a sudden (as if! _Her, _timid!), "The Goblin Revelation of 1603. Terribly boring, actually."

"I couldn't agree more," he replied, to her shock mingled with .. what was that? Mild attraction. _Wait! Attraction? Where the hell did that come from? _He was being so un-Percy like, she was almost sure it was Polyjuice potion and/or the Imperius curse. She quickly squashed to outrageous thoughts from her mind. She was _not, _and never would be attracted to him- but she really had never seen that twinkle in his eyes before...

Percy Weasley was just full of surprises, today, wasn't he?

"Are you alright?" she asked quickly, and his face was masked with surprised.

"What do you mean, Penelope?" he asked, obviously perplexed. She bit back a chuckle- no one, except for her grandmother, called her _Penelope. _It was too official-sounding, and she much preferred Penny.

"I didn't know-" she started, and then realizing that it sounded wrong, she sucked in a breath and restarted. "I'm just surprised, usually you would go on about something involving the book, saying it was fascinating and such," Penelope explained.

He shrugged- another thing the pompous prat Percy never did. _Honestly, though, was he under the Imperius curse? _"I've had a few things on my mind."

"What's that?" she asked casually. _Percy had something other than books on his mind, _she wondered. A sudden conclusion hit her - how could she have not seen it before? "It's a girl, isn't it?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

He turned beet red, from his ears to the back of his neck, which he rubbed subconsciously. _That's more like Percy. _"Yes, in fact, it is," he admitted in an official tone. "But I recall the last time I had spoken to her she told me, and I quote, '_to bugger off.'" _

"She's-" Penelope started, but she immediately stopped talking. That had been earlier this morning - perfect Prefect Percy had told her to stop running in the hallways, and she had shot a 'bugger off' over her shoulder. No, he couldn't - could he be talking about her? He interrupted her inner musings.

"I- I was wondering, Penelope, if perhaps you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me."

* * *

It was kind of their thing now, to meet up in an empty classroom. They couldn't go to each others' common rooms, so they chose the next best things. It wasn't widely known - hell, it wasn't known at all that they were together, just for the fact that they both loved privacy and he had two michevious twin brothers who would make life hell for him (not like they already did).

But as soon as she knew it, his hands were on her waist, pulling her closer, and hers winding through his curly red hair, and they'd close the distance passionately, and she'd end up on his lap, legs around his waist as things became increasingly heated, and he'd wrap his arms around her even tighter-

_BOOM. _The door to the classroom swung open, and a panting Ginny Weasley ran through, clutching her stomach, and stopping wide-eyed at the sight of Percy and Penelope, intertwined together. They sprang apart, Penelope very conscious of her puffy red lips and the eleven year old giving them a wide-eyed look.

"Percy?" the girl asked, surprised. Her flaming red hair matched his, and Penelope knew they were siblings.

"Er..." he said dumbly, as Penelope blushed as crimson as Percy did and pretended to examine the wall. "Don't tell anyone, p-please, Ginny." he said, finding his voice. "Please, just - not Fred and George, not Ron, not _anyone. _I won't make you do _anything _else - anything - for me again, ever." Percy swore, and gave his little sister a pleading look, a look so unusual on his face, so different than the 'you must respect your superior' look he gave to almost everyone else.

She nodded, shell-shocked, and backed away slowly. _It must be pretty shocking to see your brother - albeit the one who's never publicly had a girlfriend - snogging someone in an empty classroom._

"Where were we?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow at Penelope.


End file.
